April 2021 The weathering of the Engine House is complete, and it has been placed on the layout temporarily. When it is placed permanently, I will have to add some height to the foundation son the doors will clear the rails especially once they are resting on roadbed.
April 2021 Next structure for the Engine Terminal is the Walthers Cinder Conveyor and Ash Pit. I opened the box to look over the kit’s part. My first reaction is I have quite a few things to paint. The ash pit, concrete foundation, the building, and probably the steel supports. Given the number of colors and the size of the parts I don’t feel firing up the airbrush is warranted. It will be either rattle can or brush. I will clean off the parts and most likely give them a quick shot of flat sealer before I start painting.
April 2021 After painting the parts for the cinder conveyor, I began the assembly. Instructions say to build the support column. I thought the coaling tower was annoying at times. This thing took frustration to a level I never knew existed. Trying to line up the lattice work between the sides was a hair pulling experience. I managed to break three pieces off just trying to get one piece aligned to the other. After about an hour and a half to two hours, after various thoughts of destroying the model in numerous ways involving throwing, crushing, or stomping I finally got it together. Next step is to assemble the shed that goes on top.
April 2021 Even while concentrating on the structure kits, I am still working on the layout. Over the past few days, I worked on making a crossover out of #8 turnouts and a 12.5-degree crossover. The big news is I added the Water Tower Diorama into the layout. The location is temporary but I can now run trains past the Water Tower once again. Videos of test run over the Water Tower Diorama
June 2021 I finally installed the temporary inclines at the Water Tower Diorama. The inclines now uniformly lift the track to meet the Water Tower Diorama. The trains are running many times better.
June 2021 I had a chance to fiddle with the yard layout for the engine terminal. After several tries I finally came to something that is very close to what I am looking for. There are still some tweaking to do.
June 2021 After some further thought about the layout I am coming to the conclusion I am not thrilled with the double tracked mainline. Since I don't think I would ever be running more than two trains on the mainline I am considering going with a single track with a passing siding or two. This will give me more room for scenery and yard tracks and industrial sidings. It will also present some operational challenges. A quick thought on switches. I am not liking the PECO switches I have. There difficulties with connecting track to them due to the alignment of the ties. I had a couple causing shorts when I was running DCC. I am in the process of removing them. I am looking for simpler things not something that makes things more difficult. As luck would have I stopped in a local hobby shop and they had Atlas #6 Code 100 turnouts. I bought them out.
June 2021 Frustration and annoyance are rearing themselves again as I try to figure out this engine terminal layout. The photos below show the latest attempt. I am satisfied with the coaling tower and the ash pit track configuration. Currently I don’t believe they will change much in future. The Engine House appears to be in the right place although I wish it could be closer to the coaling tower. The Water Tower could move some, but I feel it is almost in the best spot. Now the sand depot and fuel depot are the ones I am most unsure about. The biggest question I have in regard to them is bringing in sand and fuel to off loaded into the depot. The track behind them is my attempt at a solution. I am not happy with the amount of real estate the track configuration is taking up. I know I need to remember this is a model railroad and compression is needed and accepted in many cases. I am just having some trouble getting my head around that concept at times. The other area I am hung up on is storing full/empty coal hoppers, gondolas for ash, hoppers for sand, and tank cars. I feel I am thinking too big when it comes to the number of cars that would be at the engine terminal at one time. I am interested in your opinions and thoughts.
August 2021 I know it has been some time since I posted an update on the layout itself. I made a drastic change to the engine terminal. I moved the location to the other end of the layout. I think this works better. Things are not 100% done but I think this is close. I have several small kits to add such as water column, fueling station, sanding towers. I will be to finalize things more once I have the passenger station in place and some of the city/town done. I am currently working on the passenger station platforms.
September 2021 Time to change things up. I cannot make any further useful progress on the Engine Terminal until I get the passenger station in place. The station will determine the limits of the urban area. First step is to build the station platforms. For this I am going to assemble Walthers Cornerstone Butterfly Platform Shelter. Here is what the open box looks like. I used a rattle can to paint the concrete parts and top of the shelter roofs. I airbrushed the supports and underside of the shelter roofs. Assemble the stairs. Add the supports and lights to the underside of the shelters. Paint the bottom of the lights. Platforms' assembled and place in approximate location.
I apologize that I have not updated this in some time. I am hoping to be posting more often to this thread to catch everyone up. September 2021 Next structure on the list is Walthers Union Station kit. The Box The untouched parts Coloring the mortar lines. I know it is hard to see in the photos. I did two coats. Frist was a darker gray and then an off white.
September 2021 After I added the glass to the windows the walls of the center section being assembled.
